So let’s get this party started. Please tell us about yourself. What got you interested in being an author?
I was about sixteen and we’d just read The Great Gatsby in English. I was so taken with it that I decided to be a writer and started to write a novel. I showed bits of it to a student teacher and she liked it. That hooked me. In junior college I began writing plays, which were much easier to finish than a novel (these was back in the days of typewriters and whiteout. After spending about a decade working in the theatre – mostly for free. I began writing screenplays and eventually was accepted in UCLA’s prestigious screenwriting program. After completing my MFA, I began to get frustrated by the always “unfinished” aspect of film writing. It’s never done until it’s a movie, and if it’s not a movie it’s not really anything. So, I returned to fiction writing in 2008 and have been publishing regularly since.
Can you tell me a bit about your most recent/upcoming release?
My latest book is Boystown 3: Two Nick Nowak Novellas. With the publication of this book, the two previous Nick Nowak Mysteries will be released in paperback. Previously, the were ebook only.
The series is set in Chicago during the early ‘80s and follows the professional and personal adventures of private eye Nick Nowak.
For any readers who may not have read any of your books, can you just give us a little sneak peak into world (i.e. the type of genre you write, type of stories you like to write....etc)?
Most of my published work is in the mystery/suspense genre with the exception of my comedic novel The Perils of Praline, or the Amorous Adventures of a Southern Gentleman in Hollywood. I like to flip back and forth between the genres. I used to think this was kind of weird, but a writing friend of mine pointed out that comedy and suspense are usually both about some kind of obsession and I think there’s some truth to that.
How much of yourself, if any, do you put into your characters?
Writers really only write about themselves. That sounds like narcassicism, but really it’s impossible to write characters you don’t connect with. That said, I am surprsied at how different some of my characters are from me.
Is there a genre you haven’t done that you would like to explore in the future?
I’m tempted to try a comedic paranormal. I’ve been noodling around with it and may pop it out one of these days.
If you could throw a party with any five people (living or dead) who would you pick and why?
My Dad and my friend Vinc, they’re both gone and I miss them. Rock Hudson because I’d like to know if he was as sexy in person as he was on film. Dashiell Hammet since you can never get too much writing advice. And, Joe Orton because I think his plays are ridiculously funny.
My Dad and my friend Vinc, they’re both gone and I miss them. Rock Hudson because I’d like to know if he was as sexy in person as he was on film. Dashiell Hammet since you can never get too much writing advice. And, Joe Orton because I think his plays are ridiculously funny.
What are at least five things you have on your bucket list and have you done any of them?
Gee, I tend not to think in terms those terms. If I want to do something I tend to make it happen. I’d some day like to go to England, since that’s my ethnic background. I’d like to go on a cruise – but I’m planning that for next year. I’d like to move to Palm Springs some day, but I’m no hurry. There are a couple of things on the sexual frontier I’d like to try… but, we barely know each other, so I won’t mention them here.
Is there one series/author you feel is a must read for readers to explore (can be e book authors or print NY house authors)?
Just one? Eek. I don’t think I can do it. As a mystery writer, I my two biggest influences are Joseph Hansen and Sue Grafton. I’d also have to say my early reading of James Kirkwood’s work (in the early 80s) still influences me. I heartly recommend all three.
Do you listen to music when writing? Do you feel like some stories write themselves a soundtrack with specific music? If so, what book and what kind of music influenced it?
I’ve been making playlists for my projects for several years now. With the Boystown Series I put together a list of ‘80s music, particularly music I listened to at the time. Nick is also a jazz buff – which I’m not, really – so I’ve put together a little of that to listen to.
What is coming up for you in 2011?
Things are going to be quiet for a while. Boystown 3 is the fifth book I’ve put out in a year. Yikes, I’ve been busy. Mostly I’ve been doing a lot of editing. Of course, I’m currently working on Boystown 4 which is going to be the first complete novel in the series. Beyond that, I have several projects waiting but haven’t quite decided what I want to work on first.
Are any of your characters just like you or have personality quirks/traits of you or someone you know?
Well, just like Nick Nowak I have a violent streak that occasionally gets out of control. Actually, I don’t. Nick has punched many more people than I have. You know, I think all detective characters are like their writers in at least one respect. Solving a mystery is somewhat like writing a story. You figure it out one piece at a time. And, so on one level, all mysteries are about the process of storytelling.
Where can readers find you on the web?
In Little Boy Boom, Nick’s car explodes when a thief attempts to steal it. Realizing the bomb was meant for him, Nick sets out to discover who wants him dead only to find that the list of possible suspects is longer than he’d like. When he begins to run out of suspects he wonders if the bomb was truly meant for him.
Little Boy Tenor finds Nick investigating the murderer of a church choir’s star tenor, while at the same time his friend Ross asks him to discover the truth behind his lover, Earl Silver’s mysterious death. As he juggles the two cases, he becomes increasingly disturbed by what he learns.
Sneak Peek into Little Boy Tenor in Boystown 3
Available at Torquere Press
Everyone lies. They lie to the people they love; they lie to themselves. Once you admit it, it’s not such a hard thing to live with. What is hard to live with is how far people will go to keep their lies alive.
Reverend Edward Pepper was a fussy little man. He sat uncomfortably in the guest chair across from my desk, looking around my office as though he wanted to take a rag to it and wipe up all the dust. Of course, I wouldn’t allow that. I was fond of the dust.
He was dressed in a black shirt with a clerical collar. Over that, he wore a short woolen jacket that was now making him sweat. It was May and the weather was hot one day, cold the next. That day had begun cold and quickly heated up. I’d asked if he wanted to hang the coat on the hook behind my door but he’d declined. He was a small man, wiry and tight. He seemed on the verge of shaking. With his white blond hair and his anxious blood-shot eyes he reminded me of a rabbit. A pretty rabbit, maybe, but a rabbit all the same. Even his nose was pink. He’d been in my office for ten minutes and I hadn’t been able to find out why he was there.
“How did you find me, Reverend Pepper?” I asked.
“We have a choir. They’re good. Quite good. They perform every Sunday morning on The Towering Hour. Have you seen it?”
“The Towering Hour? No, I generally sleep in on Sunday mornings.”
“Oh. Of course,” he said. He’d already identified me as a heathen. I hoped he wouldn’t try to change that. I liked being a heathen.
He hadn’t answered my question, so I asked it in a different way. “Did someone in the choir recommend me?”
“Yes, I mean, no. I mean they called around until they found someone who could recommend some like you.”
“Someone like me?” I suspected I knew what he meant but I wanted him to say it. “Why were you looking for someone like me?”
“Gregory was shot, you see. Gregory Dane. Outside his apartment building. About a month ago.” I kept an expectant look on my face, hoping he’d give me more details. It worked. He went on, “Gregory had the most beautiful voice. When he sang it was like listening to an angel. Everyone liked him. We can’t figure out why--”
“I still don’t understand why you came to me.”
“You’re uniquely qualified to find Gregory’s killer.”
I took pity on him finally and guessed, “Gregory was gay.”
“Yes,” he said, sitting back in his chair as though relieved he wasn’t going to have to use the word himself.
“And you think something about Gregory’s being gay is what got him killed?”
“It must have.”
There was something about the good Reverend I didn’t like. It might have been his nervous little rabbit ways. Or, his unwillingness to come out and say what he meant. Or, his assumption that being gay got Gregory Dane killed, I don’t know. But I didn’t like him so I said something that was a little on the untruthful side, “I’m sure the Chicago police can handle the case.”
“I don’t think so,” the Reverend said. “They’re already making mistakes.”
“Yeah? What mistakes have they made?” I asked.
“They found a gun in a trash bin about three blocks from where Gregory lived. They say it’s the gun that killed him. The gun is registered to me.”
“Gregory was killed with a gun you own?”
“Gregory was killed with a gun you own?”
“No, that’s not what I said. It’s not what I said at all.”
It certainly sounded like what he’d said.
“You see what I mean?” he went on. “The police aren’t doing a good job.”
“I’m afraid, I don’t see,” I said honestly.
“I’ve never owned a gun in my life.”
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